ODE TO ALBA

“There are two things that interest me: the relation of people to each other, and the relation of people to land.”

~ Aldo Leopold

𝕆𝔻𝔼 𝕋𝕆 𝔸𝕃𝔹𝔸 (2025) traces a journey through Argyll and Bute on the west coast of Scotland, where Jojo was born. Alba is the Scottish Gaelic word for Scotland, often used endearingly to refer to homeland. The photographs were taken on 35mm film during meditative walks through lichen-speckled woodlands, windswept sea lochs, grasslands, and peat bogs.

These photographs intend to capture the magic and mysticism of this wild and enigmatic land, once home to ancient Celtic traditions and rituals. They draw on the Gaelic phrase fighte fuaighte, meaning 'woven into and through each other', and explore the interconnection between the self, nature, and the eternal. They document sites long associated with access to the Otherworld, such as the Ballochroy Standing Stones - three megaliths aligned to the midsummer and winter solstices - and St Columba’s Cave, which is known as a place of worship and portal to the Otherworld, the realm of gods, spirits, and the dead.